ESA EADS to prevent astronomically costly crashes in space

The island of Cyprus is partially visible among the clouds with the European Space Agency's Columbus module in the foreground in this image provided by NASA and taken April 8, 2010. 

REUTERS/NASA/Handout

A new EU-wide system to track satellites could help reduce collisions with orbiting space debris, crashes that cost operators millions and could knock out mobile and GPS networks.

The system, proposed by the European Union's executive, aims to help monitor dangerous space junk and alert satellite operators to collision risks ahead of time, the European Commission said on Friday.

The EU could get a "big bang" for its buck, since last-minute course changes to satellites are estimated to cost operators 140 million euros ($183.03 million) each year, with that cost expected to rise over 10 years.

When satellites aren't able to move out of the way in time, impacts can damage delicate electronics and reduce their operational life. They can also disrupt mobile phone calls, cause flight cancellations and interfere with weather forecasts.

The proposal would help EU member states combine their space surveillance systems and encourage them to invest in new technology.

Setting up and operating the service will cost roughly 10 million euros a year and could be up and running by 2016, a Commission spokeswoman said.

She said the EU will pay this cost, in the hope that it spurs around 50 million euros in further investment from member states in new technology like radar, telescopes, and data centers.

Space debris includes any man-made litter left in space - parts of rocket launchers, inactive satellites and broken pieces from past collisions.

Many thousands of space debris objects orbit the earth and have potential to crash into expensive satellites or injure people on the ground.

Does Experimental Vaccine helps prevent HIV infection

For the first time, an experimental vaccine has prevented infection with the AIDS virus, a watershed event in the deadly epidemic and a surprising result.

Recent failures led many scientists to think such a vaccine might never be possible.
The vaccine cut the risk of becoming infected with HIV by more than 31% in the world's largest AIDS vaccine trial of more than 16,000 volunteers in Thailand, researchers announced Thursday.

Even though the benefit is modest, "it's the first evidence that we could have a safe and effective preventive vaccine," said Col. Jerome Kim. He helped lead the study for the U.S. Army, which sponsored it with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

The institute's director, Dr. Anthony Fauci, warned that this is "not the end of the road," but said he was surprised and very pleased by the outcome.

"It gives me cautious optimism about the possibility of improving this result" and developing a more effective AIDS vaccine, Fauci said. "This is something that we can do."

Even a marginally helpful vaccine could have a big impact. Every day, 7,500 people worldwide are newly infected with HIV; 2 million died of AIDS in 2007, the U.N. agency UNAIDS estimates.

"Today marks an historic milestone," said Mitchell Warren, executive director of the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition, an international group that has worked toward develping a vaccine.

"It will take time and resources to fully analyse and understand the data, but there is little doubt that this finding will energize and redirect the AIDS vaccine field," he said in a statement.